The present invention relates to a machine for cooking food in a liquid, and in particular for cooking Italian-style pasta in water or potatoes in water or oil.
Machines for cooking Italian-style pasta are already known and have been used for many years. One of the most recent and highly successful models is that described in MI2001A000189, produced by the proprietor of the present patent application. This machine, of roughly parallelepiped shape, presents an aperture for access to an internal compartment, the aperture involving the front and upper face of the machine and being closed by two relative doors. In the internal compartment there is provided a cooking vessel into which the cooking water is fed and maintained at a predetermined level by a top-up device fed by a relative reservoir. The machine also comprises means for heating the water in the cooking vessel and one or more baskets which when located in one of their positions are at least partly immersed in the water in the vessel and are arranged to receive the quantity of pasta to be cooked. The baskets can be rotated to cause the pasta, when cooked, to fall into a collection container located in an outwardly openable drawer or forming part of this drawer. A control unit controls the machine operation.
The present invention provides a machine for automatically cooking pasta which is decidedly more simple and less costly than known pasta cooking machines.
More generally, the present invention aims to provided a machine for automatically cooking food in a liquid, and in particular for cooking Italian-style pasta in water or for frying or boiling potatoes. This object is attained by the machine of the present invention, comprising a vessel for the cooking liquid, means for heating the cooking liquid, and means for maintaining the liquid level in the cooking vessel substantially constant, characterised by comprising a series of liquid-permeable seats, each arranged to receive food to be cooked or food whose cooking has to be completed, means for moving these seats along a predetermined cyclic path, during a part of which the food contained in the seats is immersed in the cooking liquid for a time sufficient to cook the food or to complete its cooking, a station in which the food to be cooked or the food whose cooking has to be completed can be fed into each seat, and a station in which the cooked food can be extracted from the relative seat.
It should be noted that the term xe2x80x9cstationxe2x80x9d does not mean that said seats are required to halt at said stations, but merely indicates the existence of a position in which the food can be inserted into each seat or extracted from each seat, the seats not necessarily interrupting their movement during these operations.
Conveniently the means for moving the seats along the relative predetermined cyclic path consist of a wheel element lying in a vertical plane and located above the cooking vessel, the seats for the food being provided on the periphery of the wheel element.